Burning
by galaxysong9
Summary: Tezuka bakes a cake. Timed writing exercise.


Time: 47 minutes  
Character/Theme Gen: Tezuka, Ryoma, Burning  
Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis/Tenisu no Ohjisama is property of Takeshi Konomi, and Shonen Jump should not be associated with it in any way, shape, or form because they have the worst translators I have ever seen.

Tezuka was in a foul mood. Contrary to popular opinion, this is not his default mood, but to get Tezuka Kunimitsu in a truly Foul Mood, there must be an extreme catalyst.

In this case, it was cooking.

Why, do you ask, was Tezuka cooking? It doesn't seem very tennis-related or masculine, both of which seem to be basic tenets of Tezuka.

There was, in fact, a quite clear-cut reason for his recent foray into the culinary world: Ryuzaki-sensei was returning from her hospital trip, and The Team had decided to do a welcome ceremony. The jobs had been parcelled out based on relative skill level, and some unknown force had designated Tezuka as being, theoretically, the best baker. Tezuka really thought that Taka-san was most likely better, but he was in charge of general food preparations. But surely Eiji could handle making a cake! No, he would be setting up decorations. Oishi? Was the general overseer, and in charge of making sure that Ryuzaki-sensei remained in the dark about the party until the last possible moment. There was a flaw in this plan, Tezuka remembered thinking, but couldn't quite detect it.

Thus, Tezuka was in his kitchen, wearing an apron, and swearing at his mother's oven. He wasn't really a failure at all things concerning cooking – he could follow directions well enough, and he feared nothing, which is surprisingly helpful in cooking. However, his original reluctance to bake in the first place, and the oven's failure to do as he wished compounded his mood into the epitome of Foulness.

When he first mentioned this task to his mother, she expressed a bit of concern (not much, as she knew how much concern to express before her son felt annoyed and put-upon) and asked if he wished her to stay, so that she could help (especially, she mentally noted, when he was forced to wrestle with their ancient and temperamental oven). However, he refused, and she only smiled to herself and wished she could be there to watch him trade blows with the oven.

Tezuka fiddled with the knobs and played with the dials until he almost caught his sleeve on fire by turning on the burners by accident. He felt uncharacteristically clumsy – he was generally adept at making tea, and he was sure he had used the oven before... just not in baking.

It had taken him 10 minutes to get the oven to produce heat, and, as he was waiting for it to reach the desired temperature, he received a phone call.

"Tezuka? How are you doing with that cake?"

Tezuka groaned inwardly. It was Oishi. He couldn't let Oishi down, but he couldn't lie to him either. "Fine. Splendidly. It's going fine."

"Oh, that's such a relief! I was just talking to Eiji, and it seems he managed to upset an entire jar of glitter into his racket bag, then somehow glued a dampener to one of the posters. I'm so sorry I forced this onto you, but I didn't think I could trust Fuji or Inui to do it, and I didn't want to heap more responsibility onto Taka-san, so I thought that you could handle it-"

"Oishi, it's fine. I have everything under control, and you'll have a lovely cake tomorrow." Even if I have to buy one before practice.

"Oh, thank you Tezuka! I hope I haven't kept you! I still need to call Momo to make sure that he has enough of those crepe paper streamers, so I'll see you tomorrow!" Oishi hung up, and Tezuka was left with an odd sense of confusion. But the oven dinged, and he went to put his cake pans to bake.

_A moment of relaxation_, he thought, and laid down on the couch in hopes of regaining his normal dignity. He had just closed his eyes when the phone rang again, and he swore that if it were a telemarketer, Hell couldn't imagine the depths of his wrath.

"Oi, buchou." It was their newest pillar. Tezuka wondered if they could win at Nationals without him, or if their chibi could survive being stuffed into an oven.

"Yes?"

"You haven't happened to see a... cream-and-chocolate-point Himalayan cat around, have you?" There was something odd about Echizen's voice.

"No. Have you finished buying drinks?" Their widdle baby had been assigned the relatively easy task of getting enough Ponta for everyone.

"N-no, not yet..." There it was again. Like the cocky little brat was faltering, or something equally abnormal.

"Is there a problem, Echizen?" See, Tezuka could be caring if he tried!

"I-it's nothing... Nothing at... at all..."

"Are you crying, Echizen?"

"Of course not!"

"Very well then, perhaps you should finish your end of the work?" Not that Tezuka was _bitter_ or anything.

"I... I can't find Karupin anywhere! I've looked all over my house, and I've called Momo-senpai, and I've checked the school, and my tennis bag, and under my bed, and I tried asking Fuji-senpai if he had any ideas, but he just laughed in that creepy way and said she'd turn up eventually! What if something's happened to her!"

Tezuka was temporarily dumbstruck. What does one say when someone has asked where their most beloved thing in the world has gone? And why cry on Tezuka's shoulder, of all people? "It- She'll turn up somewhere, I'm sure."

"But she's mostly an indoor cat, and she ate barely anything this morning, and what if she's sick or hungry or hurt somewhere, or there's someone torturing her and performing experiments on her!" Ryoma was all-out sobbing at this point.

"I'm sure Inui would know she belongs to you." Tezuka didn't _usually_ speak before he thought, but that probably made this slip of the tongue even more noticeable.

"I-Inui-senpai runs experiments on cats! Buchou, do you have Inui-senpai's phone number!"

"Why don't you? Didn't Oishi distribute information like that?"

"I... I think I lost it! You have it somewhere!"

Tezuka sighed and was about to shuffle through his Information papers when he smelt something odd. Something he usually only associated with Taka-san... He ran into the kitchen. And immediately dropped the phone. Then tried very, very hard not to scream. Instead, he let a sort of strangled gasp.

"Buchou! WHAT'S HAPPENED TO KARUPIN!"

"IT'S BURNING!" He should've known that leaving the papers in the kitchen was a bad idea, because he swore he could see flames inside the oven and knew that they could leap like lemurs and destroy the entire house... _Don't panic, don't panic..._

"KARUPIN!" Now that's gone too far.

"Echizen. I must go. My cake seems to have caught fire."

"It... It's not Karupin, then?" His hysterical sniffles seemed to have died down.

Tezuka hung up and tried to think straight as one possibly can when they have not before dealt with open flames in their kitchen. He had only one possibly recourse. He dialled the phone.

"K-Kaasan?"

galaxysong9


End file.
